Political Reporter

Independent Norton legislator, Temba Mliswa has attempted to sweet talk a Harare magistrate to drop Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) interim co-deputy president, Tendai Biti’s assault charges.

Biti is facing charges of assaulting a Russian investor, Tatiana Aleshina at the Harare Magistrates court in November 2020.

A source who spoke to this publication said that Mliswa recently contacted High Court Judge, Justice Munamato Mutevedzi, with the intention to influence the postponement of the hearing of Biti’s assault case which is currently before the courts.

“Mliswa is friends with Biti. Recently, Mliswa called Justice Mutevedzi begging him to drop Biti’s assault charges. Mliswa tried to sweet talk Justice Mutevedzi into dropping the charges or postponing the case until after the forthcoming elections,” said the source.

According to the source, Mliswa told Justice Mutevedzi that the assault case was weighing heavily on Biti who is now afraid that he might be jailed, making him ineligible to contest the forthcoming elections.

The source said that Mliswa promised Justice Mutevedzi ‘something’ in the event that Biti’s case was dropped or postponed.

However, the same source said that Justice Mutevedzi told Mliswa that the courts were independent and would not be influenced by anyone.

The source added that Justice Mutevedzi further told Mliswa that he was not in charge of Biti’s case and assured Mliswa that Biti would get a fair trial considering that the courts were independent and manned by professional people.

According to the source, Justice Mutevedzi resisted Mliswa’s request to visit him at his homestead to discuss Biti’s case further.

Meanwhile, efforts to get a comment from Mliswa were futile as his mobile phones were not reachable.